The Strain in the City
by Doctor Dave
Summary: Sequel to Whenever you least expect it. Fellow apocalyptic Bones followers, i am rewriting this story! Will stay on the main plot, but cleaning it up! DC has been hit by the virus! As the iconic city is in an uproar, can Booths unit find the Jeffersonian team in time? First 3 chapters updated.
1. I am a phorensic anthropologist

**_Hello! I am back to boot, and completly redoing The Strain in the City! I dont own the characters, but i certainly put em through alot of hell...enjoy. :)_**

"_Thank you Paul_, _Now, on the latest this evening, numerous reports on a small town in Brakefield say that a blast occurred on this small dusty town just 24 hours ago. There have been no reports on what could have caused the blast or where exactly it had occurred. But, all of Brakefield's residents have been evacuated out of their homes. The authorities say that there could have been a chemical contamination, and will provide further details later on. Authorities in D.C. are now voicing concern, but reasons are unknown. We'll keep you updated."_

Dr. Temperance Brennan walked over to the television and shut it off. She noticed it was distracting her concentration and returned to her seat. She had been working for 5 hours on putting together a two hundred year old skull that had shattered in the process of moving it into the Jeffersonian; something she was most displeased with.

She flipped a stray strand of auburn hair from her face and set the half-finished skull down onto the glass table. Her mind seemed to wander to the last day that she had seen Sgt. Sealey Booth. She had been doing that a lot lately, and frankly, she had no idea why.

_The airport was loud and crowded, but neither woman cared. They raced over to their waiting friends, past the security line, and hugged their awaiting friends, squeezing each and every one tight. She smiled as she saw their familiar faces. She never realized how much she really had missed them up until that moment._

_Tears overwhelmed them both and were warmly welcomed by Hodgins, Zach, and Cam._

_Bones looked back from where they had come from and saw two uniformed men on the other side of the security line and she smiled at them. Sgt. Sealey Booth stood there with his hundred-dollar smile, a bandage across his neck. Cpl. Wade Manelli, the medic, stood next to them giving them both a nod, his arm up in a sling. Angela and Bones smiled back. Bones wanted to walk over there to say goodbye but was stopped when a herd of travelers blocked her way and it seemed that Booth and Manelli had vanished with it. After the crowd had passed, she looked around, but they were gone. She turned back toward her friends, disappointed, and then looked back just to make sure..._

_"Thank you, Booth…" She whispered. Without him, she truly believed they wouldn't have been here. Many of his dear friends and comrades had perished trying to save them, and to them all, she was deeply grateful._

_"Who were those guys?" Hodgins asked._

_"Friends…"_

Bones then snapped out of her daydream and rubbed her eyes. She really needed to get this skull done, but maybe she could get a couple hours of sleep. She checked her watch. It was well after midnight. Bones stood and collected all of the pieces and set them carefully into a tray and set the fragile skull down on a table gently, next to it. She took her lab coat off and grabbed her purse.

She had decided to walk to work that day and didn't really count on working this late, so she had to walk home. There was a light drizzle coming down, but surprisingly, she didn't mind. In fact, it reminded her of that time when she saw that poisonous snake in the jungle, and Booth had picked it up. She smiled to herself as she remembered him quickly tossing it aside once she informed him of its true nature.

Brennan shook her head, "Stop it. This isn't rational. Besides, it's not like we'll ever meet again. It's improbable."

Her heels clicked down the wet sidewalk and her coat was soaked by the time she reached her apartment. She dug into her pockets and her shoulders sagged. She leaned her head against the door and sighed. She must really be tired if she forgot her keys. She checked her purse just in case she stuck them in there quickly, but her search was fruitless.

Bones walked out of the building, pulling her stylish trench-like coat tighter around her, and walked back outside while she grabbed her cell phone out and dialed Angela's number. As Bones waited for an answer, her eyes scanned all of the lights emitting from pubs and stores- something she felt was very foreign. Yes, she had been gone weeks going on digs in remote places, but somehow, Brazil had been different.

There was no answer and she frowned. She pocketed her phone and started to make her way back, passing grungy bums and smoking drunks. She felt like she needed a tetanus shot just looking at them.

"Hey sweet thaaang, wannnna haf a goood tiime?" A drunk slurred, as he stepped from the pub toward her.

" I don't have the time, nor would I even consider to have any sexual interactions with you. Besides, consuming alcohol decreases sexual function." She said, as-a-matter-of-fact, and with that, walked away.

The stars were dim and hardly visible. She had gotten use to lying down and gazing at the stars next to Booth. She shook her head. That was enough. She walked, determined to get her keys from the lab without letting her mind stray.

All of a sudden she ducked as she heard a loud crash. A store window had shattered next to her and a man came crawling from the bits of glass. He looked raving mad with blood shot eyes and drool hanging from his lip. She jumped back as he ran past her and into traffic. She then noticed sirens blaring through the streets and five police cars drive past her. She looked confused at all of the commotion and watched as people were running through the streets, screaming. Cars started crashing into other cars and light poles, and chopper blades were overheard in the sky. Adrenaline surged through her body, and her heartrate quickened. She looked around and noticed loud engines roar by her. She turned and saw a line of humvee's roll past her into the city. She backed away quickly, not wanting to get splashed from the water spewing from the curbs. It seemed like D.C. had gone to hell in a handbasket in a matter of seconds. All of a sudden, large trucks and armored vehicled stopped in the street, and soldiers started pouring out, weapons ready, and securing off a perimeter.

A soldier, an officer she deduced, from the shiny blobs on his flackjacket, stepped out calmly and raised a megaphone to his lips.

" Citizens of D.C." He shouted, "This is the United States Army, we are commencing to evacuate the city. Drop your belongings, and quickly, but calmly make your way to city hall, where we will begin screening."

His words were unclear in her mind that was trying to comprehend her situation. _Screening? What screening?_ What would they be screening for? The soldiers started to point the dazed and confused people to their appropriate destination. She was pushed with the crowd, and she frantically grabbed for her cell. She hit Cam's speed dial and listened…

_I'm sorry, this line is unavailable. Please hang up and try again._

She tossed it back into her jacket pocket. What was happening? This was all happening so fast!

Bones was continuously pushed with the crowd and soldiers were stationed to direct the crowd. They continuously shouted things like, "Keep moving." Or "Don't stop."

The night sky continued to drizzle and people were moving so quickly that if you made the stupid mistake of stopping, you'd be trampled over. Bones noticed one man falter next to her and bent over, breathing heavily. He fell on his knees and clawed at his face, making uncomprehensible sounds. The crowd backed up and started to scream. Citizens began to panic, and people started pushing more and more people out of the way desperately trying to flee the danger. The soldiers immediately pushed through the crowd and kicked the man to the ground. One quick shot to the head, and he became silent.

This was all wrong. The memories of the virus flooded her mind. It couldn't be…that virus was safe in some highly-secure military facility somewhere. There could be no way that the virus was in DC. She was thinking irrational things in an irrational situation.

"Keep moving and stay calm." They kept shouting.

She looked around and watched as they all weaved in and out of the street around parked cars. People were in their cars screaming and pressing their bloody faces against the windows. They were trapped inside, infected, and hungry. They clawed at the glass, trying to dig their way out…blood dripping from their flesh, and their eyes bleeding. She noticed the blood slowly drip down their mouths.

"It's coincidence, Brennan." She reassured herself.

She looked back over at the people surrounding her, and saw other people screaming as infected started attacking others. They bit, and tore each other apart in a vicious fight. The soldiers cordoned off that side of the street. They protected one side of the street and then shot anyone else that tried to cross. Infected, or not.

Bones was suddenly pushed roughly against a wall, being squished between people. Everyone started to scream as more people started to attack each other, snarling and moaning. Soldiers started to shoot at the crowd, and in a panic, orders were quickly changed.

Kill on site.

She pushed her way through the herd and dropped her purse in the process, not caring. Bones bolted down an uncrowded alleyway and ran until she turned right and opened a back door to a pub. She tried to open the green metal door but it was locked. She rammed it with her shoulder, but it didn't budge. Brennan's shoulder screamed at her, but she paid no attention. Her head snapped to the left when she heard footsteps run toward her through the dimly lit alley. She quickly ripped her right heel off and stood in a defensive stance.

A young curly haired brunette screamed when she saw her and stopped. She looked at her intently, "A..are you infec..ted?"

Bones stared at her and shook her head slowly, "No."

"We have to get out of here…they're closing off the city! They won't let us out if they close it!" She panicked.

Bones grabbed the girl's arm and replaced her shoe. They ran toward the end of the alley and stopped to look around the wall, cautiously. Bones peeked around the corner and shot back as bullets whizzed past her face, missing her by a few centimeters. She looked up at a fire escape on a building and ran over to it, dragging the ladder down.

"Come on, the emergency door should be open." She said, helping the teen up. Once up, they climbed the three flights, and Brennan busted the door open. She cautiously walked slowly into the dark room and felt her way along the walls, holding onto the girls hand.

Bones walked over to a very dimly lit room and looked around, searching for a more lethal weapon than her heel, and grabbed a candelabra from a night stand and held it in front of her face. She stepped forward, and a wooden plank squeaked under her weight. Bones cringed.

Temperence heard a rustling, and then quick movement in the room. The teenager walked closely next to Bones, and held her breath. The room was hard to see, and her heart thudded against her ribcage.

Bones opened a grimy, green door, pointing the candelabra in the direction of the sound and saw a man holding a dirty plastic fork.

"Stay away!" He harshly whispered. A little girl coward behind the man holding the lethal fork.

"Were not infected, we won't hurt you or your daughter…" Bones said, trying to reassure him.

"What? That's not my daughter!" He exasperate, and turned back to look at her.

Bones looked taken a back, " I apologize, my presumptions were incorrect, I will merely re-analyze the situation and attempt to make a compromise, but in saying so, I think I have the upper hand since I wield a blunt Jewish object and you a plastic utensil." She said, slowly setting the candelabra down in a gesture of good faith.

The man stared at her for a second, confused as to whether the attractive woman had actually spoken english, and stuck the plastic fork back in his buttpocket.

The teenager quickly shut the door and closed the ugly red drapes. They reminded her of her grannys drapes, back when DC was normal and people werent trying to eat each other.

The grungy room was lit by a couple of candles, and it seemed that these two people had sought shelter here. It was a small living area that had recently been vacated, as the lack of furniture were any indication. A few large wooden furniture items were scattered about, and the old wooden floor seemed to dip under its weight. Bones and the teenager sat down against the wall adjacent to the man and child and awkwardly stared at each other.

"I'm Aubrey, by the way." She said to Bones, holding out her hand.

Bones looked at the teen, and gently took her hand, "Temperance."

"I'm Howard." The man mumbled, "I don't know who the little girl is, she don't talk."

Both women looked over at the wavy haired girl. Her blonde hair was worn in a long braid and she wore a cute red dress with shiny red shoes and white lacey socks. Her blue eyes stared at a crack in the dirty wall, as if it was the most intriguing thing in the world.

Aubrey took her green jacket off and placed it in her lap. She wore a plain purple top and dark blue jeans with muddy converse. She slipped off her black backpack and rummaged through it, smiling when she grabbed what she was looking for. She set her bag to the side and unfolded a map.

Bones grabbed one of the candles and held it over the map. Howard inched over to see, not really having anything else to do.

"Now, the government has already sealed off the east and west entrance to the city. They wanted to start evacuating people down south, but the infection spread to quickly and now they're in the process of pulling out the troops, and closing off the north and south entrance." Aubrey said.

"How do you know all of this information?" Bones asked, scrunching up her eyebrows, and staring at the young woman.

"I eavesdrop. Ya, know, typical teenager stuff." She replied, giving her a cheeky smile.

"Wait, wait a minute. What infection are you guys talking about?" Howard asked, rubbing his chin. "If there was some sort of pandemic or whatever, it would have been all over the news. The CDC would have been all over it!"

"I don't know. I remember hearing on the news that there was an explosion in Brakefield, which is only ten miles away from D.C..That was a little less than two hours ago. They said that the authorities were evacuating that town due to chemical contamination, but I think it was something else, and it spread here. Whatever it is…it's real nasty stuff from what I've seen." Replied Aubrey.

Bones combed her hair with her fingers and looked at the wall opposite her, and sighed.

Brazil. That's all she could think of now. She didn't want to think of the possibility of it being here, in DC. Her home. All of the villagers it killed, all of the people she had known that had died; but she was staring a the facts, and the facts were leading her to a very grim reality.

Her eyes grew heavy and she slowly succumbed to darkness.

…

When she finally awakened she saw sunlight filter through the ripped, red drapes and she turned her head and peered cautiously through them. What she saw of her familiar city seemed foreign. There were crushed cars, dead bodies, and sheets of newspaper scattered on the roads. It seemed to be a different world to her.

Bones looked around and noticed Howard and the little girl were fast asleep. She turned and saw Aubrey awake next to her, scanning over the map. Brennan leaned over to her, "Did you attain any sleep last night?"

Aubrey shook her head, black circles underneath her eyes, "Don't need it."

Bones looked at her and stood. She stretched her achy muscles, and walked over to the door, its paint peeling off. She grabbed the doorknob and Aubrey looked up.

"What are you doing? You can't go outside." She said, sounding somewhat panicky.

"I'm going to survey my surroundings from a different perspective. I won't leave the building." She said simply, and cautiously opened the door. Aubrey's curiosity spiked and she skulked beside her as they slowly made their way through the hallway and into the room they had entered from the fire escape just hours before. They looked around the room and found it oddly unsettling to her; maybe it was just the fact that it had a lot of pictures of dogs on the wall, which Brennan never understood why humans were so attached to their canine counterparts. She immediately threw that thought away and focused on the window next to the green door which led to the fire escape.

Both of them jumped when they heard a loud THUNK! They both scrambled to grab a weapon of some sort and Brennan grabbed the first thing she saw, a mop; and Aubrey grabbed a metal candlesnuffer. They both took offensive positions around the door. Bones looked over at Aubrey quickly, making sure she was ready. Aubrey glanced back and nodded.

They heard footsteps back up and then the door burst open, causing it to hang oddly at the hinges. A soldier lay on his side, grunting, trying to recover from the successful drop-kick. Another soldier raised his weapon at the ready toward the two women.

Bones shouted, "Drop your weapons! I'm a forensic anthropologist, and I know many forms of martial arts. I will not hold back!"

The soldiers all stopped and looked at each other.

"Is she for real?" The soldier asked, jumping up from the floor, and raised his rife at her.

One soldier pushed through the others and cocked his head, "Bones?"

**Alas, the first chapter is up, nothing much has changed. I attempted to put more descriptive paragraphs and words in their to gussy the chapter up a bit, and if there are any misspelled words i apologize. Also, im terrible with apostrophes. I hope this is a better beginning than the previous one.**


	2. There's one by the door

**Here's ch.2! Re-done, re-furnished. Hope u like. again, i own nothing, except my characters.**

…

"Bones?"

Dr. Temperance Brennan lost her grip on the mop and it clattered on the dusty floorboards. The loud _clang _echoed through the sparse room, making veryones body tense. She looked at the soldier who was wearing desert BDU's and his M24 bolt-action sniper rifle slung on his shoulder.

"Booth?" She asked, not believing her eyes.

Booth pushed the soldier next to him out of the doorway and into the room. He slammed the door shut and told the soldier, that had fallen while busting the door, to block it. That man nodded, and started to push a French armoire in front of the door to barricade it. The other comrade helped him. When the door was succesfully blocked, Booth walked over to her and stared at her in disbelief.

"Bones, what the hell are you doing here?" He asked, while at the same time taking in her appearance. He liked the black trench-like coat she wore, and then quickly snapped back to reality.

"I was being evacuated out of the infected vicinity, when people around me started to resort to their more primitive instincts-"

Booth interrupted her by sticking his hand up and rolling his eyes. She stopped, and felt a twinge of irritation. She hated when he interrupted her.

"No, I mean why are you still here? You were supposed to be evacuated out of the city before we came."

"We would have, if everyone didn't go nuts and kill each other and rip each other apart. We had to split…" Aubrey said, "So who are you? " She challenged, walking up to him.

Booth arched his eyebrow and looked at her, "Who are you?"

"I'm Aubrey. I assume you already know Temperance, and Howard and the little girl are in that room down the hall." She said, pointing toward the door.

The soldier who had fallen during his amazing stunt in breaking the door, was named Sgt. Jack A. Plisken. He had rumpled short dark hair and 2 day stubble. He had a rugged handsome face with a scar under his left eye. Sgt. Plisken was an explosives expert with a trained German shepherd at his side, not even making the slightest sound. His name was Diesel.

The Pfc. next to Plisken was Sam O'Neil. He was a tall lean blonde, holding an M249 SAW. He took a gander through the drapes and whisted."Damn, this place sure got shot to hell quick…" He muttered.

Sgt. Seeley Booth unsnapped his helmet and took it off. He looked at Aubrey again, and snatched the candlesnuffer from her grasp, and dropped it on the ground. "Do any of you have any weapons other than…mops and candlesnuffers?"

…

All five of them walked through the dimly lit hallway and opened the creaky door. They entered and closed the door behind them. The kitchen was dirty, green, and ugly. The wallpaper was grotsque and the green countertops were cracked and scratched. Mold started to poor from the closed door of the refrigerator and the sunlight was barely able to peek through the ripped kitchen drapes.

Howard and the little girl looked up at them, and nodded as they all poured in.

They all sat down on the cracked, grungy tile and sighed. They decided to stay in the kitchen. It was the smallest room they could fit in with the least amount of doors. Booth had been in some pretty nasty kitchens, but this one took the cake. He felt like he needed a tetanus shot just looking at the fridge. He slipped some gear off and set his helmet down as he leaned against the stove, which smelled of old pickles.

"We have no effective weapons in the kitchen that we could wield to defend ourselves." Bones said, looking through the drawers and pantry for any weapons before she sat down next to Booth. She slipped her jacket off and laid it over her lap. She had a dark green tanktop on and the same color light jacket. Her dark blue skinny jeans looked nice on her, though the heels she thought she ought to wear to work turned out to be the biggest mistake of her life.

"You cold?" Booth asked.

Bones shook her head, even though he was indeed correct. It was very chilly outside, and the small crappy, three-room apartment they were cooped up in wasn't insulated very well. She shivered and Booth got up and left the kitchen through the creaky door. A few minutes later he came back, shut the door, and tossed a folded blanket at her face.

Her face scrunched up. "Booth, I said I was fine. My body temperature is perfectly normal under these conditions."

"Yah, well, you're anything but normal, Bones." He said, and sat back down next to her, giving her a smile.

She couldn't help but smile back. He always had the knack of knowing exactly what she needed, and wanted for that matter.

"We can go to the gun shop over on Trenton Ave. tonight. It's best to travel at night until we get closer to the outskirts of the city." Plisken said, rubbing Diesel's ears. The German shepherd lay in his lap, and yawned.

"Why should we only go at night? That makes no sense whatsoever." Howard said, rubbing his face. His hair was dark, but it had started to grey ever since he got a divorce from that bitch Monica, his estranged ex-wife. His rumpled button up shirt had grease stains on it, and the holes in his jeans didn't give him a much better look.

Booth explained, "From my experience with this virus, I've noticed it's best to travel at night. There are more noises , such as insects and owls, and the infected's senses are heightened, so they have excellent hearing. We'd be at a disadvantage in the daytime, it's completely silent."

Howard nodded…they were still screwed…but at least they had somewhat of a plan. He sighed loudly and looked down at his belly. He used to be pretty trim, like all of the other guys in the room, but, he let himself go after being forty-two, with a dead-end job, and divorcing his ex. He picked at some crusty stains on his shirt, casually wondering what it was.

"What is this virus? I mean, where did it come from?" Aubrey asked, drinking an orange soda she had produced from her bag.

"It's a genetically mutated Ebola virus. Cuba hired top-notch scientists to mutate it and they were going to release it into the United States as a biological weapon. Luckily, we stopped it- but…it seems it broke out of the testing military facility in Brakefield, where they were studying it."

Aubrey nodded. She had always read about zombies and watched all the movies, and often wondered what it would be like. Now, she wasn't so sure we wanted to know anymore. "Well, the only thing useful I have is a D.C. map…" She muttered, flinging it to Booth. He caught it and breifly looked at it.

Meanwhile, the little girl stared at Diesel and she smiled. She stood and walked over to him, and then sat down next to the huge puppy. Deisel's head shot up, his ears honed in on her. She wearily stretched her hand out to pet the do,g and looked up at Sgt. Plisken. He smiled and nodded, gently taking her hand and slowly moved her to Diesel's soft fur. Her smile grew even more, and stated petting him on her own, and scratching his belly. Diesel was in heaven.

"So…let me get this straight…we're going to creep through the night, with infected on our heels, and with an arsenal of metal spoons, when you guys get machine guns and grenades? I'm thinking you better be sharing." Aubrey said, crossing her arms, eyeing one of O'Neil's pieces. She was not going anywhere without something that went pow.

O'Neil scoffed, "Yah, then be held responsible when a civilian shoots themselves in the leg…that's highly unlikely, curls."

Aubrey gave him a death glare and grabbed a fork, throwing it at his head. He ducked and it stuck into the wall as it made impact. O' Neil looked back at it and then back at Aubrey, squinting his eyes.

Even though it was about noon, everyone was dog-tired and decided to get some sleep. Before they even thought of sleep though, they all boarded up the windows, and barricaded the pantry door because it led to an unknown room, and they didn't seem very adventurous at the moment, so they didn't take any chances. Afterwards, they all were situated and Bones started to nod off as Booth sat back down, next to her. He watched her fight to stay awake.

"Get some sleep, Bones. We have a long night ahead of us…" He whispered in her ear. She lazily looked over at him, her eyes barely opened, and her head plopped down on his shoulder. She was out. He rested his head against the cupboards and closed his eyes.

How odd, he thought. To be in a similar situation, with Bones. He had often thought about her when they parte, but knew for sure he would never see her again. What are the chances?

Plisken had already fallen asleep. Diesel slept soundlessly on his lap, with the little munchkin on top. She yawned twice and then fell asleep. Aubrey sat next to Plisken, and head-bobbed, fighting to stay awake, but the sneaky Mr. Sandman intervened, and she fell asleep.

Howard on the other hand was stepping over legs and feet, trying not to wake anybody, and looked around. O'Neil looked up at him and glared.

"Go to sleep, Howard." He said.

"I have to…ya know…"Howard said uneasily, swallowing and fidgeting.

"No…I don't know…" O'Neil replied.

"I have to…" Howard stopped and looked around. Everyone was asleep, or at least looked it. " You know…" He whispered.

O'Neil stared at him.

"Oh! You have to tinkle?" He asked, bluntly.

Howard blushed and nodded.

"Here ya go buddy." He said, tossing Howard a glass bottle. "Be my guest…" O'Neil said, casually.

Howard's face was red with embarrassment and gasped as the bottle flung at him. He jumped back like a girl and it broke on the floor. Everyone jumped and awoke. Booth was already standing with an M16 in hand, before he realized he got up too quickly, and felt a little woozy.

"Sorry…" Howard said. "This moron just tossed me a bottle and it fell. He expects me to use it to…"

Everyone stared at him to go on…

"U-um…well…" He fidgeted.

O'Neil rolled his eyes, "He needs to take a whiz, Boss."

Howard blushed again, "ShhhhH!"

Bones looked up at Howard sleepily, "There's no need to be ashamed or embarrassed at natural bodily function. It's biologically needed to eliminate excess salts and water-"

"Okay, Bones, I think we all know the reason why we have to pee, 'kay. Howard, just, do what ya got to do, and shut up and go to sleep…" He muttered angrily. Everyone sat back down and got as comfortable as possible on the tile, in the crunched quarters.

"You know, Boss. We don't know the munchkin's name…" O'Neil muttered through closed eyes.

"I don't care. Go to sleep." Booth muttered back.

"How about…Elsa."

"She's not German, moron. Now sleep." Booth snapped, and shifted his shoulders, to try and get more comfortable.

"Fine, what about Candy?" O'Neil asked, "She looks like a Candy to me."

"She's a little girl, O'Neil. Not a hooker."

"It's short for Candice..."O'Neil muttered, elbowing Howard on accident, fidgeting to get cozy. "Okay, then how about Tory?"

Booth's eyes snappeed open, "I don't care if you name her after your pet goldfish…if you don't magically fall asleep in 2 seconds, I'll shove my boot up you ass so far up, you'll be tasting rubber for a month, you get me?"

O'Neil just smiled, "Tory it is...Night Boss, Night Sgt."

"SHUT UP!" The two NCO's yelled in unison. O'Neil hugged his M249 and curled up, ready for sleep to claim him.

Booth yawned and looked over at Bones. She smiled and laid her head down on his shoulder. He smiled back, and kissed her head. They both closed their eyes, and Booth wrapped a protective arm around her. All he wanted to do was protect her from the shitty situation they were in, but before he could come up with any concrete plans, he quickly fell asleep.

…

By the time the gang awoke, the crickets could be heard through the boarded window. The room was pitch black and the occupants in it came to life, stretching and yawning.

Bones lifted her head from Booth's shoulder causing him to wake up. He looked around and didn't move until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. He felt for his gear and helmet, and put them on. Bones grabbed her jacket and slipped it on, as she stood.

Plisken awoke Diesel and he looked up at his master awaiting orders. Plisken nudged him off and Tory awoke when Diesel stood. Howard rolled onto his side and complained about his back hurting, as if his was the only one that was sore from sleeping on the world's most uncomfortable tile, not to mention the grossest.

Bones fished in her jacket pocket for a lighter and flicked the cap open. She flicked it a couple of times and then on the third try came fire. It illuminated the room.

Aubrey noticed two legs, that didn't seem to belong to anybody she knew. They were clammy and pale, and held a couple lacerations on them, that oozed blood. Her breath caught in her throat as realization dawned on her and her eyes widened.

"There's one by the door!" She yelled.

…

**_Hope you enjoyed. Ch.3 up next_**

…

BDUs: Battle dress Uniforms; soldier's camouflage; their battle uniforms.

Pfc: Private first class.

M249 SAW: Squad Automatic Weapon. A light machine gun with bipod.(which is fun as hell to shoot, by the by)


	3. One less person to worry about

Here is Chapter 3 new and improved! Enjoy my darlings...btw, i know long ago i had some other ideas on some bones ideas, might start those. havent decided...

…_._

"Aubrey! Aubrey, wake up!" Bones said, shaking her from her nightmare.

Aubrey's eyes snapped open and she gasped, pushing Temperance away. Aubrey looked around and noticed that they had slept all through the day and the night, and that there was indeed, no creepy figure at the door…unless you thought Howard standing next to the door with bed-head, drinking an orange soda, was creepy.

Howard looked offended at the weird look Aubrey gave him.

She looked around again making sure there wasn't an uninvited guest in the room and then rubbed her forehead. They had been cooped up in this stanky, old apartment for a whole day, and it was REALLY getting to her head. The smell of pickles certainly didn't help things.

"I must have been dreaming…" She muttered, feeling a little foolish.

Bones stood and noticed sunlight filtering through the spaces between the boards on the window. She looked at her silver watch…8:25.

"Booth…" She said, nudging Booth with her foot. "Booth…It's 8:25."

His eyes fluttered open and he looked up at Bones confused for a moment. At first he couldn't figure out why she was there, in front of him. He thought this was a dream. Booth liked the thought they were together in a house and she was standing in the kitchen looking amazing, until he remembered the stupid virus that escaped a testing facility and was wreaking havoc on the city…goody. He stood and stretched, dissapointed that wasn't actually his dream. He noticed the light shining through the boards on the window and turned to Bones.

"Why is there light coming from that window?"

"It seems we have overslept due to the physical fatigue we all felt in the last couple of hours." She said. "It's 8:26."

He hung his head and cursed. He didn't understand, he set his watch. Booth tapped it and noticed that it had stopped working. Looking around he saw that the rest of the gang was getting ready to head out. Howard finished his orange soda and crumpled it, tossing it on the floor and a loud belch erupted from his mouth. Aubrey and Bones curled their lips. The men applauded.

Aubrey put her curly hair up in a ponytail, going for function rather than fashion. She grabbed her backpack and the crumpled can, and threw it at Howard, hitting him in the chest. "You are so disgusting…"

O'Neil wiped the string of drool from his mouth he aquired in his fitful sleep, and looked around to see if anyone saw. Satisfied, he stood, dusted his butt off and grabbed his pack, hauling it up on his shoulders. He grabbed his beloved M249 SAW and then slapped his helmet on his head.

Sgt. Plisken was already ready to go, with Diesel sitting down by his side, panting. The little girl, who O'Neil had declared was named Tory, was standing next to Diesel, rubbing her eyes and yawning. She was about 5 years old and was a little shorter than the explosive sniffing dog. Her eyes curiously watched the others gather their things.

Booth quickly snatched his M16, slung his rifle onto his shoulders and decided to ditch the helmet. No explosives would be going off, and not much shooting would be going on, so there was really no need for it. It was extra weight he could lose. Booth stopped and smiled slightly as he remembered his friend Stryker who he had lost in Brazil. Stryker had told kate to lose a few pounds when she refused to ditch her magazines and heels, and of course, she took it the wrong way.

He shook himself out of his thoughts and walked over to Plisken, rummaging through the sergeant's bag, and found what he was looking for. He grabbed the earpiece and stuck it in his ear. That radio was their only link to the outside world.

Once everyone was ready to go, they made their way through the kitchen door, down the dimly lit hallway and into the sparsely decorated room, presumably a living room. They carefully opened the door leading to the outside emergency exit staircase, and one by one, they cautiously walked down the metal stairs and into the desolate alley.

Bones looked around her city. There were small fires still burning from car accidents and dead bodies littered the ground. Her eyebrows scrunched up when she saw something very, very wrong. Thousands, if not millions, of dead birds littered the ground. Something had wiped all of these birds out, and the culprit she suspected, was the virus. She had read in many medical journals about how viruses mutate, but that was usually after months of an outbreak. If the virus truly was mutating, and that was a factor that Brennan had to keep in mind, then things could certainly get out of hand quick!

They all looked at the scene before them, silently. This was not the D.C. they all knew. It was as if a nuclear reactor just exploded and left death in its wake. There was not a sound to be heard, except the repetitive squeak of a metal warehouse door a couple blocks down from where they were, that kept swaying in the wind.

They slightly spread out, each one speechless. Booth motioned them to follow him as he stepped over a tipped over garbage can. He looked at the road signs and decided to turn right on Main Street. Bones walked next to him and continued to look at all of the dead birds. There were millions littering the streets, cars, and buildings.

"Booth…this is very peculiar for a human-to-human contact virus. Could it be possible that it mutated into an airborne virus?" She asked.

"Hell, I don't know, Bones, you're the science guru, here, not me." He replied, winking at her.

She smiled. "Thank you, I know, but that is a possibility. If that is the case, than we should wear the proper personal protective equipment."

"Can viruses mutate this quickly?" He asked.

Bones shrugged as she walked, "It's certainly possible. The virus could be mutating and evolving to fit the standard of its environment, to continue to exist. All species have been evolving to continue to live in their respective environments, viruses would be no different."

Booth nodded and stepped over two dead bodies and continued down the road to the arms dealer shop. The air was slightly chilly, and papers were swept up from the wind, roughly, and tossed aside.

Howard's face was pale as he too, stepped over the ripped carcasses. He, unfortunately, was the one that noticed a spider crawling from out of the dead bodies mouth, and he gagged. Not that that wasn't bad enough, the stench throughout the city was terrible. The smell of rotting corpses was heavy in the city, and they all tried their best to ignore it.

Howard stopped, causing Aubrey to bump into his back.

"Hey! Watch it!" She spat, backing up and rubbing her nose.

"I'm done, guys… I've had enough. I'm done." Howard said, holding his hands up in defeat. his face was pale, and his hands shook.

Everyone stopped and turned around. They looked at Howard. He had a look on his face that read defeat, a sort of tired and weary feel about him. He had lived a relatively long life and was done skulking around a ghost town with a possibility of eminent doom around every corner.

"You go back, and you have little chance of surviving this, Howard." Plisken warned.

"Oh…I don't expect to survive this…" He muttered, with a sick grin on his face. "No sirree."

Howard grabbed a pistol from behind his back and aimed it at his temple. The gang's eyes grew wide and they all lunged at Howard, to try and stop him, but they were too slow. Plisken quickly covered Tory's eyes when a loud bang rang out through the empty streets, and Howard's body slumped to the pavement. Aubrey covered her mouth and everyone stared at his body, all feeling a bit awkward.

"Oh my god…he just…?" Aubrey asked. Her stomach felt sick, it churned and bubbled as she saw the blood seep from out of the gaping hole of what use to be Howard's head.

"Looks like it…" O'Neil said, "Oh well…one less person to worry about." He said, shrugging.

Aubrey looked up at him, incredulously, "Do you seriously not care that he just blowed his flippin brains out?!" She shouted.

"Nothing much we can do about it. It's already done, frizz ball." He said staring at Howard's limp body and watching the blood trickle around his head. "It's a little too late."

…

The gang made their way down a couple more streets without running into any problems. Once they found the gun shop, they noticed that the glass windows were shattered and dead arms were entangled in the iron bars on the windows inside the store. People had been trapped inside the shop when the shit hit the fan, and were unable to escape through the barred windows. Booth threw that delightful thought out of his head.

O'Neil kicked a cardboard box away from the door, and raised his weapon as he stepped through the shattered glass door. The glass crunched from underneath his foot, as he stepped inside the shop, and looked behind the counter for any unsuspected surprises.

Booth stepped inside after O'Neil, and Bones close behind. Aubrey looked inside as they sweeped the building and then crossed her arms as she leaned against the a wall. She blew some hair away from her face and angrily sighed. All of a sudden, movement caught her eye across the street. She squinted her eyes and noticed something take cover behind a dumpster covered in colorful graffiti.

"What the..." She wondered aloud. Digging into her bag she unearthed a pair of binoculars and messed with the setting until she got a clear view of whatever was moving. She couldn't see what had moved, but could see two feet behind the dumpster.

"What do you see?" Plisken asked, appearing out of nowhere, holding Tory.

Aubrey jumped and held her hand over her chest.

"Holy shit, don't sneak up on me like that…" She said angrily, swatting his arm, then looking back at the dumpster.

"I seem to have that effect on people." He muttered, setting Tory down and looked at Diesel. The dog's hair was standing up, and he growled. Someone or something was definitely behind that dumpster. He took her binoculars and peered through them.

"I saw movement coming from that dumpster…there's someone behind it…" She said, pointed toward the dumpster across the street.

Booth, Bones and O'Neil joined the two outside when they saw them staring at something with a pair of binoculars. Bones leaned her head subconsciously on Booth's arm as she stood next to him. Booth looked down at her.

"You tired, Bones?" He asked, giving her a weak smile. They were all mentally tired more than physically. Bones realized she was leaning against him and immediately straightened up.

"It seems I am more tired than I originally predicted." She said, giving him a brief, small smile back. Booth nodded then looked at Plisken as he layed his hand on her hip.

"What are you guys looking at?" Booth asked.

Plisken and Aubrey pointed toward the dumpster and he noticed a figure dart from the dumpster and hid behind a parked grey car. Booth slipped his rifle off his shoulder and raised it up, peering through his scope.

"It's definitely someone…I can't tell if he's infected, he's making some radical and jerky movements."

"Well, let's shake things up, waddya say sarge?" O'Neil asked with a cocky grin. He wiggled his eyebrows for the best affect and Booth glared at him. "What? and have hoards of infected crawling up on our ass. Think, O'Neil!"

O'Neil frowned, and the glint in his eye quickly dissapeared as sheer dissapointment replaced it.

Plisken rolled his eyes and looked through the binoculars again. The person kept making jerky movements and loud grunting was coming from the car.

Aubrey looked around and found a large rock in the street. "Well, how about this." She thought aloud, and picked up a large, heavy rock in her hand, and looked at the car, calculating the distance in her head. She chunked it with accuracy and it hit its target, earning a very loud grunt. That same rock was pitched back, sailing into the air, and it collided with O'Neil's helmet.

Diesel was growling even more, and barked, tearing off toward the grey car. Sgt. Plisken yelled, but the angry dog would protect his pack. Diesel leaped onto the hood of the car and tackled the person. A loud yell echoed through the streets.

"What the hell!? Get offa me you stupid, mangy-"

A short man appeared shouting uncomprehendable words, wearing desert camoflauge with a large pack on his back, and a 9mm around his right thigh. Diesel tore at his right sleeve, planning to drag this perpetrator back to his master for his punishment. The soldier pulled and swore, attempting to free his blouse, but the iron-like jaws held shut. He was hopping around too, as if he were playing with the dog. He resorted to ripping his helmet off and starting hitting the dog.

"That's enough!" Sgt. Plisken shouted, and immediately Diesel let go, backing up a few inches, but keeping his eyes peeled on him. He continuously growled and bared his teeth.

"Manelli?" Booth asked, a bit shocked at the turn of events.

Cpl. Wade Manelli shot his head up and looked over at the familiar voice. "Sergeant? Sergeant Booth? Oh thank fuckin' God!" He shouted, hopping and stamping his feet some more. "Ah, fuckin' ants! Arrgghh!"

The group walked over to him, meeting him halfway, and stopped as they took in their medics ragged appearance.

"Why the fuck are you throwing friggin rocks at me for!?" The angry italian bellowed. "Rocks are flying from the damn sky, my arm was almost ripped off by that beast from hell, and a colony of fire ants just anhilliated my ankles! That doesn't even start frosting the fucking cake either! We got infected running rampant through these parts, and i was getting dive-bombed by thousands of birds! I can't catch a break!" Manelli spouted, his New York accent reverberated through the streets, clear as day. Clearly his dishevelled and miserable appearence reflected his mood.

"Manelli, that's enough. Pike down." Booth said, resting his hands on his hips.

"**How** the **hell** am I supposed to calm down, when you're trying to give me a subdural hematoma!" He shouted, pointing at Aubrey.

"Subderal hematoma's are nothing to joke about, Booth." Bones agreed, nodding at Manelli.

"Oh, you're that bone lady from Brazil! right?" His eyes brightened. He looked around and frowned, "Angela around by any chance?"

"Yah, missed ya too, buddy." Booth muttered, slapping Manelli's shoulder as he brushed past him. "Great…this is going to be a wonderful trip…"

…

**Never fear, my apacolyptic fans, Manelli is here! Our spunky medic has arrived to be faithfully mauled by animals!**


	4. Resignation

The story, The Strain in the City has been discontinued due to epic failure to match the ratings of the previous story whenever you least expect it. I apologize for the inconvenience of leaving you hanging, but you know I'm doing you a favor. This story was not an original idear of mine, and sucked, and I'm laughing my ass off right now, cuz it know it sux. My mojo on this story is vanished, and so is the urge to write it. It is up for adoption-just pay 9.95 in ten payments-JK, so if anyone can turn this story around and not into a bigger state of failure, more power to you. If I get a ridiculous amount of people yelling at me to continue writing, I most likely will, but I've got different idears at the moment and will start a new story.

I am sorry, but, I can't work on non-original idears, and can't function correctly to write it, so…sorry.

Sincerely, and indubitably (whatever that means )

Dr. Dave

P.S. can't apologize enough for my horrific failure at this story. I'm really disappointed in it and thought it would be a good sequel idea, but it turned out the way Indian Jones 3 did…It sucked! And ruined the whole series just about, so…anywho, I am commencing my resignation of this story and will be working on another. I will keep you all posted as much as possible. Thank you.


	5. Not one of my smarter ideas

In celebrating my summer of freedom from school, I have now decided to finish this story! I might begin another story, but do not worry, this one will be finished! I have a fire of determination in my eyes! It shall be done! I am sorry it took me so long, and I do apologize if you have to read it over to finish the story! But im back folks!

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" Alright, O'Neil, Plisken, I want you both to gather as much ammo and weapons as you can. Bones and Aubrey need weapons as well. No one should be unarmed." Booth ordered as he kicked some debris by his boot.

Bones' knees were wobbly no longer from the explosion, and wiped her face off with her jacket sleeve, the black soot gone from her face. She leaned against Booth, subconsciously.

"Manelli, come here." Booth said, beckoning his old friend. It had been quite along time since he had seen him. In fact, their last mission together was Brazil.

"So, where's your unit?"

"They split, sir." Manelli said, sighing heavily

"What do you mean, split?"

"I was at the North entrance, helping with the screening, until the virus reached the gates. We had no choice but to pull out and close it permanently."

"Then how come you're here?" Booth asked, looking at him incredulously.

"I was down with the civilians screening them, and then when all hell broke loose, I didn't get to the gates in time. They have those things sealed permanently, and I also come bearing shitty news."

Booth nodded, urging Manelli on.

"Well, we have 48 hours to escape the city until we're all evaporated by a lethal 400 pound bomb, containing wonderful radiation and ridiculously huge heat waves."

Booth looked at Manelli hard. This really wasn't good. He rubbed his head and looked around. No one was really injured, so it's not like they would be slowed down that much. It certainly didn't help having to look after a 5 year old, mute, munchkin- but they would just have to deal.

He adjusted his sniper rifle on his shoulder and looked over at Bones and Aubrey, "We need to go."

Bones nodded, and walked back into the arms shop, and then came back out with Plisken, Diesel, and O'Neil following.

Plisken carried a few handguns, two rifles and loads of ammo. Diesel held a box of semi-automatic ammunition in his jowls and O'Neil emerged out with a stack of weapons so high, he could barely see where he was going.

Booth looked at O'Neil, "Think ya got enough there, sparky?"

………………………………………………………………………………………………

They all walked, south, down the silent streets. Their eyes peeled for any movement.

"So…sarge, you might take this the wrong way, but, if ever comes a time that there is an unfortunate climax in the story and you're knocked off, can I keep your sniper rifle?" O'Neil asked, walking next to Booth.

Booth stopped and looked at him, and then kept walking, "No, O'Neil, I think I'd rather see it lowered into a pit of hydrochloric acid, then in your hands. Do you remember what happened the last time I made the mistake of giving you something when I was in Panama?"

O'Neil looked straight ahead and thought back, "It seems I might have blocked out that memory…it's kind of fuzzy…"

"No kiddin', let me jog your memory, O'Neil. You returned me my girlfriend's cat. It had singed hair and patches of fur fell out for three months, because you were making napalm to burn your grass because you didn't want to cut it…"

"Ahh..yah…not one of my smarter ideas…"

"She never spoke to me again. She took the cat and left…" Booth said, looking back at O'Neil.

Plisken winced, "Ouch…"

Manelli scoffed, "Nah, you got off easy. I once had a girlfriend with mentally challenged fish. They couldn't swim correctly, they sorta swam sideways and for hours they'd just lay still, like they were dead. I thought they were, so I disposed of them… My girlfriend threw her mother's china plates at me when I told her I flushed her live fish down the toilet…"

Aubrey laughed, "I sat on my boyfriend's bird on accident. It died. He then got a restraining order."

Everyone looked back at her with wide-eyes.

" I went out with this chic after I got back from that Nicaragua assignment, anyway, I took her to a park…and she was mauled by a bear…I don't watch the news-and it seemed that there was a bear loose from the park that night. She ended up with eighty-two stitches. She never called me back." O'Neil stated, matter-of-factly.

Plisken laughed, "Diesel broke my girlfriend's arm at the beach. She was running from him with a ball in her hand, and he bit her arm and dragged her down, thinking it was a training exercise…She hasn't really talked to me since…"

Aubrey looked up at him, "What do you mean, hasn't really?"

"She leaves threatening phone calls every once and a while."

Bones scrunched up her face, "I don't understand the hilarity of peoples pain and misfortune."

Booth smiled and shook his head, "It's okay, Bones, you don't have to understand."

They all continued to walk through the deserted streets, thinking that this used to be a lively city with average people doing average day things like baking, driving, mugging, and so forth…

"This virus is mutating quickly, Booth. It's already jumper to bird's…" Bones said, breaking the silence.

"I thought you said it could be airborne."

"If that was the case, then we would be infected to, but, we've been exposed to the air for hours now and no one has started showing symptoms…thinking the virus is airborne would be ridiculous now. My only conclusion is that it must have made the jump to birds."

Booth nodded and looked up at the buildings. Curtains were shut, and disheveled cars littered the streets. His heart grew heavy thinking about it. He quickly noticed a large building between all of the skyscrapers and nudged Brennan.

"Hey, is that where you work?" He asked, pointing to the Jeffersonian.

Brennan gasped and looked at Booth, "Cam, Angela, Hodgins, Zach-they're all in there! Booth! We can't assume anything! We have to stay rational but there could be a slim statistical chance that-"

Booth looked at her and interrupted her, "We'll find them, Bones. I promise. We won't leave them if they're in there."

Bones nodded and they hurried toward the building. It was nearing nightfall and they needed to rest somewhere for the long and deadly day that would be arriving when the sun rose.

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**Okay, people! I know it's been forever, and my chaps are usually longer and more detail, but I'm in a rush today- lots to do- I just wanted to get this started up again as quickly as possible- so sorry if it wasn't the best.**

**Thanks all and reviews are very appreciated!**


	6. Hey guys, she quit crying!

Chapter six is here my loyal readers! I hope this chapy will be much better since I've actually planned it out-go figure. So anywho, this may be my last chapter for the month, but I'll try and get another one up before I leave Thursday. I'm going to Europe and well, why would I want to get on a computer while I'm over there looking at the Vatican and stuff?! Oh! By the way! Angels and Demons was SUCH a good movie! Oh my bob! It kept you guessing whom the actual bad guy was- it was so crazy! I definitely recommend it! Anyway, I won't be back until next month- so, enjoy!

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Thunder clouds started to roll in over the desolate city. Sprinkles started to shower the city, making a feeble attempt to wash away the small fires and the smell of death away. It actually smelled like wet dog, according to Manelli-but then he realized Diesel was sitting next to him.

"Scram!" Manelli shooed him away, but Diesel did not budge. He looked up at the annoyed medic and gave him a lazy look as the rain pounded down harder.

Booth dug into his wet pockets and shook his head as water had dripped into his eyes. He pulled the foldable map that Aubrey had given to him and he unfolded it. It really didn't help that it was a tourist map, and that it was like three feet long when he opened it up all the way.

A gust of wind blew it in his face, and he angrily ripped it away. Bones bit her bottom lip to stop from smiling and grabbed one side, as he struggled with the other.

"Think you could have grabbed a bigger map?" Booth yelled, looking over the wet map at Aubrey.

Aubrey rolled her eyes, "Be thankful I Got one!" She shouted back.

He and Bones looked it over and they spread it down firmly against the hood of a beat up old car. Bones took out a marker from her pocket and circled where the Jeffersonian was, but the map ripped underneath the marker. She tried to push the soggy paper back together and marked around it-which just made it worse.

She looked up at Booth and gave him an apologetic look. He looked back at her with an irritated expression.

"Here, I believe I have some scotch tape in my jacket we can use to bind the-" She was cut off by Booth peeling the map off the hood and they both watched it shred into pieces.

"Well, I have a full roll, I think we can-"

"Forget it Bones..." He said, shaking his head. "Just forget it."

He walked toward O'Neil who was sitting down on the pavement, eating an MRE, which was something like a burrito. O'Neil grimaced as he swallowed a bite, and then looked up at Booth who stopped in front of him.

"Ya know, boss, they really need to get better food. The hell this is a…" He looked at the package, "a gourmet burrito with salsa. This looks like dog food." He waved it a couple feet from the ground and Diesel slinked over and sniffed it. He turned his nose away and backed off as if it had just bitten him.

"…the dog won't even eat it…" He muttered.

Booth rolled his eyes, "Ya got a map?" He asked impatiently.

O'Neil patted himself down quickly and dropped his 'burrito' on the pavement in the process.

"Ah!" He wiped off the gooey blob that had fallen on his wet jacket and he curled his lip. "Great…I don't even think this shit will come out…"

"Do you have a friggin map or not, O'Neil?" Booth yelled.

O'Neil shook his head, "Nah, ask Plisken or curly, sarge."

Booth stormed over to Sgt. Plisken. "Gotta map?"

Plisken shook his head and said, "The gal doesn't have one either."

He turned on his heel and walked back to Bones. He wiped the water from his face and looked at his crew. O'Neil continued to vigorously wipe the vomit-looking stain off his jacket, Plisken was kneeling down beside Manelli, petting Diesel, Manelli was standing there taking in the wonderful aroma of wet dog and decaying bodies, Tory was pulling Manelli's leg, wanting him to carry her, Aubrey was standing close by with a hand on her hip, waiting impatiently, and Bones was putting her hair up in a ponytail so that it wouldn't get out off the way.

Her mascara was smeared down her face and her wet clothes clung to her small frame-Whoa! Booth immediately looked away and slapped the back of his head.

"Focus, Sealey! You got a job to do!" He angrily thought to himself.

Bones looked weirdly over at Booth, "Why did you bludgeon your head?"

Booth looked over at Bones, confused. "Bludgeon? Don't you think that's a little over doing it? It was a bug, that's all." He said, shrugging it off.

Bones nodded, but didn't quite buy it. She subconsciously continued to look over at the tall handsome soldier. She stared at his strongly built frame and her gaze drifted lower. He had a nice tight ass-

Her eyes widened as she realized she was staring at him and turned away. She brushed her wet bangs from her face and walked over to Manelli and Plisken.

Tory yanked on his pant leg again and was fed up with him ignoring her and kicked his boot.

"Ow! You little!" He growled, snatching her up, but keeping her an arms length away. "I don't like little monsters like you…sticky fingers, pig tails, and high-squeaky voices…huh-uh…" He put her down and she pouted. Her lip started to quiver and she shut her eyes.

Plisken looked over at her and Manelli and widened his eyes. "Manelli!"

"What?" Manelli snapped back, looking at the little heathen. She started to cry, large tears pouring down her face. She hiccupped and started to wail.

Booth turned around and watched Manelli look utterly helpless as the little girl balled her eyes out.

"Do something!" Booth shouted.

Manelli picked her up carefully as if she was contaminated with radiation and grimaced.

"I-its okay…you can stop crying now…" He said, uneasily, as he bounced her up and down slightly on his hip. "You can...stop now…"

Bones walked over to her and waved her fingers in front of Toru's face. "Phalanges!" She said, in a dramatic voice. "Phalanges!"

This seemed to just make it worse. Booth walked over to them quickly.

"Bones, you're making it worse!" He said, pulling her back.

"Guys!" Aubrey yelled. "Hey guys!"

Everyone turned around, irritated, and shouted, "What?"

Aubrey pointed across the street. A few people started to line the streets; their eyes dripping blood and lacerations littered their bodies.

Aubrey and O'Neil stood, and walked slowly over to Booth, Manelli, Bones, and Plisken.

"Shut her up…Manelli." Booth whispered, slowly raising his M16, and crouching in a defensive position. The others whipped out their weapons and slowly did the same.

Manelli cupped his hand over her mouth, smothering her cries. He shushed her, but she cried harder.

"Sarge! She won't shut up!"

Diesel's hair stood on end and he growled, crouching at his master's side.

All of a sudden Booth heard voices in his right ear. He lowered his weapon and listened to his pencil radio. He readjusted it in his ear to hear better, and heard crackling.

"_**Cent Com to IronTail 12- do you read? Over."**_

He strained to hear it and replied loudly over the wails and the rain pounding down on them, "We copy loud and clear. Over."

"_**IronTail, what is your position?" **_The radio crackled.

"We are…two clicks from the original rendezvous point. Over."

Bones had grabbed a rifle from the arms shop and pointed it at the growing mob of infectious hooligans. She swallowed the lump in her throat and trained her eye one a target-like Booth had told her. She looked over at him and saw him kneeled down listening to something. She lowered her rifle and dug into her pockets, and found her cell phone. She dialed Angela's number and stuck it to her ear.

"Angela!" Bones exclaimed, hearing her voice on the other end.

"Wait there, were coming to get you. Don't worry." She said, relieved to hear her best friend's voice.

The mob slowly advanced toward them, some tripping over dead carcasses, and some slipping in slick spots on the concrete. O'Neil looked from them to Sergeant Booth, who was obviously not paying attention. He looked back toward Bones who was not paying attention either. Finally he looked over at Sgt. Plisken, who looked at him and then at Booth.

"Oh, don't worry. He's not paying attention." O'Neil reassured Plisken, dryly.

Plisken kicked Booth in the back, causing him to fall over. Booth scrambled up and looked at the advancing infected and immediately raised his M16.

"Oh, nice to know you're paying attention now…" O'Neil quipped.

Booth shot him a glare.

"Sir…" O'Neil added quickly.

"Let's stay and fight!" Bones yelled to Booth, with fiery determination in her eyes.

Booth turned his head slowly toward her and gave her a you've-got-to-be-joking look.

"Or not…"

"Good idea, Bones." He said, nodding. He stood still looking at the ever-so-close- mob and bolted. The others followed suit, Aubrey dropping her pistol to run faster. Manelli was still trying to shut the kid up to notice that the others had bolted.

"What the hell you doin', curls!? You don't drop your weapon!" O'Neil shouted at her, as he ran next to her.

"That's why I have you guys!" She shouted back over the pounding footsteps on the wet concrete.

Finally Tory settled down and hiccupped. She rubbed her eyes with her fists and yawned as he continued to hold her.

"Hey guys! She quit crying!" He yelled. He finally triumphed!

Until he saw a roaring mob infected with a mutated Ebola virus come blazing toward him, and then realized the others had bolted.

"SHHIIITTT!" He shouted as he clutched onto the munchkin and went into a dead run after his retreating counterparts.

"You guys should have fucking warned me, Pricks!"

Booth looked back to make sure Manelli wasn't in any real danger and faintly laughed at his lovely comment. When he looked back in front of him he didn't realize there was a bent stop sign in his path and ended up hitting his head, and sprawling on the ground before he heard Bones tell him to watch out.

He saw stars for half a second and then heard O'Neil laughing like a son-of-a-bitch, as he continued running away. Booth stood up and touched his aching forehead.

"Hahahhahahahaha! That's what ya get, douchebag!" Manelli cackled and laughed at the same time, as he passed him and caught up with the others. Booth looked back and swore, running faster than he ever had in his life!

They saw the heavenly steps to their sanctuary and O'Neil had no intention of stopping it and opening it. He quickened his pace and turned to break through the glass door, only to be bounced back violently and he rolled down the steps. The others learned quickly and stopped to actually open the door.

Coughing, O'Neil got up and held his shoulder, and grimaced.

"Plisken was laughing now. He opened the door and let Aubrey, Bones, and Diesel in before O'Neil finally walked in, glaring daggers at him.

"s'not funny, man…" O'Neil muttered, causing Plisken to laugh even harder.

Booth finally caught up to them just as Manelli ran through the door. Once everyone was inside, they leaned all their weight on closing the doors as the mob smashed their bodies against the glass, trying to get in.

"Booth, where's your lighter!?" Bones shouted.

"Right leg, lowest pocket!" He shouted, as he put all his weight on the door.

She quickly groped his leg, feeling a bit of deja' vu'; she found the pocket but found nothing.

" It's not in there! Perhaps, you put it in different pocket!" She yelled quickly over the loud noises from outside.

"Then check!" He shouted back.

She felt around both legs and then his butt pockets, but the search was fruitless. She squeezed in between him and the door and began to quickly take off his Kevlar vest and rummaged through his chest pockets. Finally, almost disappointingly, she found it and squeezed her way out. She scooted a chair next to the wall, by a security pad and hopped up on it. She popped the pad cover off and started to pull various wires.

"I am not familiar with such electronic commodities!" She yelled, clueless as to what wire she needed to fry to make the doors automatically lock.

Aubrey noticed that all the boys were busy keeping the door shut, so she hurried over to help Brennan.

"Move!" She shouted, and hopped up on the chair once Brennan had jumped off. Aubrey quickly sifted through the bundle of wires and found a green one. Brennan tossed the lighter up to her, as she had seen Booth do many times, and Aubrey swiped it, but then fumbled it and it fell to the ground, landing next to the boys' feet. Bones lunged toward the lighter, but was kicked away from her grasp by Plisken's foot as the door slowly opened, and he slipped down.

Plisken felt twenty billion hands grab him and started to pull him through. Bones grabbed his waist and pulled back, trying to get him free.

Aubrey cursed jumped down from the chair and grabbed O'Neil's pistol from his holster and started shooting the infected people so they'd loosen their grip. She emptied out the whole clip into the crowd and then through the pistol at them. Diesel attacked all of the hands that were wrapped around Plisken, trying to help free him.

"Shit!" She shouted, helping Brennan pull him back.

All of a sudden, a young bearded man ran toward them and hopped up on the chair and cut the wire to release the automatic locking system. But, Plisken felt himself slip away from Bones' and Aubrey's grasped and was pulled through the door. He screamed as he disappeared from the door as it automatically shut and locked.

"No! Plisken! Damnit!" Booth shouted, punching the door in rage.

"Hey, are you guys alright?" Dr. Jack Hodgins asked, jumping from the door.

Booth, O'Neil, and Manelli raised their weapons, ready to shoot, until Bones ran toward him and hugged him.

"Booth it's okay! He's my co-worker!" She said, reassuring him.

Booth lingered for a moment and then lowered it, clicking the safe on. He exhaled heavily, and clenched his jaw. He threw his M16 down on the floor and ripped the radio from his head and threw at the wall.

"Damnit!" He shouted.

"Whoa, man!" Hodgins said, backing off with his hands in the air.

Bones walked over to him and grabbed his arms, "Booth. We did everything we possibly could in a situation that's incorporating your adrenal glands to secrete heavy amounts of adrenaline to sustain-"

Manelli grabbed Bones' shoulders and ushered her away from the very pissed Booth.

"Just let him breath for a minute…" He said, and then walked over to Booth to talk to him.

Bones sighed and looked over at Hodgins.

"Is everyone here?" She asked, looking for the others to come out from wherever they were hiding in the lab.

"Only me and Angela…" He said in a low voice.

Diesel whimpered next to O'Neil, who had been sitting on the cold tile, leaning against the wall. He rubbed the dog behind it's ear's and sighed heavily.

"What's up sarge?" Manelli asked, in a low voice, not wanting to attract any others over. He wanted to know what that radio transmitted, and why Booth was off his game back in the street.

Booth tightened his fists and clenched his jaw again, turning his back away from Bones and Hodgins.

"I got a radio transmission."

Manelli nodded, "Yah, I know…"

"It seems that curls over there is the governor's daughter." Booth said, glancing over to Aubrey who was digging through her bag for something.

"Like Maryland's governor's daughter?" Manelli asked, glancing at Aubrey too.

Booth nodded, "Yah, and it seems we have new orders to escort her our of D.C….They said there seems to be a connection between her and the explosion in Brakefield."

Manelli stared wide-eyed at him, "No way…but that was the facility holding the damn virus wasn't it?"

Booth nodded, "Yep." He said, rubbing his chin.

"The same virus that was genetically mutated by our evil brazilian jungle guide?" Manelli asked.

"Yep."

"The same stuff that took control of hundreds of Brazilian dudes to make them victims of an undead army and wreak havoc all over the Brazilian forest."

"Uh-huh."

"The same thing that we had to run from, had to jump from friggin high waterfalls, and run away from human eating ants?"

"Yah, Manelli…the same one…" Booth confirmed for the fourth time, getting a little irritated.

"That same virus that caused me to be in that cave when I got mauled by that tiger because it stole my beef jerky? The same?"

Booth stared at him in confusion, "What?"

Manelli looked over at Aubrey, "That bitch…" He started walking toward her.

"The same virus..." He said louder for the rest to hear, "that escaped the military facility in Brakefield a couple days ago. The same virus…that you…unleashed onto D.C." Booth said to Aubrey, as he and Manelli took out their berrretta's out and pointed them toward her.

Aubrey backed off, "What the hell are you guys doing?" She asked, putting her hands up.

Ahahahahahah! Cliff hangar! The plot thickens! I'm really getting into this stry finally! (It took me long enough!) Thank you so much for those wonderful reviews!

_**HawkAngel: Thank you! I thought this was a good return too!**_

_**SimOph52: Thank you, Thank you, Thankyou for the wonderful review! I'm really glad ya like me stry and I know- I have a fiction crush on Manelli too! Hahaha..He was actually a main character in one of my stry's alooooong time ago. It was just some random stry I came up with..i don't even remember wat it was about- but anyway, I know this isn't the most original stry plot line ever-but ur right! If booth and bones are in it- then that makes it original! I just have a hard time trying to figure out wat to do wit the characters if the plot is not conjured up from my own sick head-but I make doo!**_

_**.135: I'm so glad I could make ur day- and thanks for the review! Maybe I can make another day with this extra long chapter!**_

_**Ariacle: Thankn you for the wonderful review and compliment! I am definitely not a seasoned writer, and believe it or not- this is my second stry I've ever written- the first being the prequel to this. Im so glad you love the plot!**_

_**Jodie Marie: Hi and welcome back! Yes, I'mm back and so is..at least half the squint squad…**__****__** I was thinking about putting them all in there- but that would be a lot of characters to work with and then I'd have to resort to picking them of…one by one…and that's never really pretty! **__****_


	7. I was only mauled by a dog

Hey folks! I'm back with the seventh chapter! And just in time before I leave! Enjoy my darlings…

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Aubrey looked hard at the two men pointing the 9mm's at her. She put a hand on her hip and sighed heavily. She looked over at Bones and blew a stray curly strand of hair out of her face.

"I wanted my dad re-elected." She stated simply.

Manelli's mouth dropped, and then quickly recovered. He stepped closer with his piece still pointing at her.

"So wait a minute, you're telling me you released a deadly mutated virus-with no vaccine, by the way- onto the unsuspecting poor schmucks that live here, all because you wanted your dad re-elected for governor?" He asked.

"Plisken's dead because of you…"Booth growled, grabbing a zip-tie and tossing it to Manelli, while still pointing his piece at Aubrey. "Cuff her, Doc…then I want her out of my sight before I do something I might not regret…"

Manelli nodded and caught the zip-tie. He holstered his berretta and walked over to Aubrey turning her around roughly to zip-tie her. Grabbing the opportunity, she grabbed his arm quickly, twisted it behind his back, and retrieved his berretta from his thigh holster and aimed it at his right temple.

"Whoa!" O'Neil said, watching the whole plot unfold, he drew his weapon and knelt down in a firing position. "Drop it curls!"

Hodgins grabbed a small potted plant and held it in the air, threateningly. "I'll give you a subderal hematoma before you can even pull the trigger!"

Aubrey rolled her eyes and laughed, "Did you really expect me to just sit idly by once my dad's term was over! His popularity was down the drain-but! If he had the resources to cage this virus-to save all of mankind- do you really think the voters would vote for anyone else!? It was a win-win situation, except for the innocent bystanders, of course." She said, cocking her weapon.

"Just shoot her, Sarge…"Manelli muttered angrily, earning a swift kick behind his knee, causing him to stumble.

"Shut up, Doc." Booth said, closing one eye as he trained his 9mm at her head. He just needed a few more seconds…

Bones grabbed Booth's hunting knife from his boot and flung it at Aubrey. Manelli's eyes grew the size of pancakes as he saw the knife being projected toward him in slow-motion, and squeezed his eyes shut. He knew he had no choice! He remembered the way she threw those knives in the jungle last time she had a training session with the Sarge. He was going to die. He just waited for it to impact his body and then he'd keel over and die with a dramatic, yet tragic effect. As blood oozed out of his lethal wound, he would speak his dying words, and- THUNK!

Manelli waited a full minute before opening his eyes. When he did, he noticed Aubrey sprawled out onto the tile with a knife sticking out of her chest. Booth holstered his weapon and walked over to Doc, patting his shoulder.

"Knew I was in good hands…" Manelli muttered, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "There was no doubt in my mind…"

"Yah." Booth scoffed, and took his knife out of the twerps chest. He cleaned it off with her shirt and placed it back where it belonged.

"See! I've been practicing!" Bones said, a smile plastered on her face. "I just had to get the correct physical balance and momentum in sync to accurately project the weapon into-"

Booth interrupted her and smiled back, "Good job, Bones."

"I take it I missed something…" Angela Montenegro said, smiling at her friend, and then yelped as she saw the dead girl at Booth's feet, destroying the sentimental feel in the air.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

"So she's the one that caused all of this? Just because her father had crappy ratings?" Angela asked in disbelief.

They all were sitting at a table in the lounge upstairs. They all nodded, confirming the girl had been a complete bitch for doing so.

Hodgins cleared his throat and eyed all of the soldiers and their weapons. He leaned over to Booth, "So…the government trying to cover up this whole mess?"

Booth sipped his coffee and looked at him slowly, giving him an intimidating look.

"Thought so…" Hodgins piped.

Diesel barked at Jack, and he gave the dog a dirty look. "Pike down, Cujo."

Angela hit Hodgins shoulder and rolled her eyes, "They were hear to evacuate the city, Jack- jeeze, everything with you is a conspiracy…"

"Well, yah! The landing on the moon, for instance. Conspiracy. They only faked that to give them an excuse to shoot off a satellite into space to spy on the Soviets."

"Yah, and Where's Waldo is a scheme to hide clues to a secret underground nuclear reactor, right?" Booth quipped, setting his cup down.

"Alright, you're a dick." Hodgins said, crossing his arms and sinking into his chair.

Bones laughed and started introducing everyone, "Oh, Ange, Dr. Hodgins, this is Sgt. Booth, that's Cpl. Manelli, and that's Pfc. O'Neil. Booth and Manelli were the two that aided in our escape out of the Brazilian jungle." She said, showing them off as if she was at show-and-tell.

Hodgins nodded, "Yah, I heard of you guys…" He said. "Is it true that you were almost eaten by ants?" He asked excitedly.

Booth sighed, obviously irritated, "Yah, and anacondas."

"And that tiger…"Manelli piped.

Booth turned toward the medic, "Doc, it pinned you to the ground and ate your slim jim. Don't you think you're overstating it just a bit?"

Manelli scoffed, "Oh, excuse **me**, if a 500 lb feline pounces on you and licks its jowls of death, inches from your face, before stealing the only decent food you have, and eating it in front of you with blood-lust eyes! I'm sorry if you, Mr. Balls of Steal, was not terrified!"

"How poetic…" O'Neil said, chuckling at Manelli's drama.

Booth smiled, and sipped his coffee. "Alright…" He said, standing up and readjusting his sniper rifle across his back, "As much as I'd love to stay and chat…I'd rather live to be in one piece-so, grab whatever you need, and we need to skedaddle." He said to Ange and Jack.

"What do you mean in one piece?" Angela asked, standing up and walking over to him.

"There's a nuclear warhead ready to disintegrate the city in less than…"He looked at his watch and looked back at her, "10 hours…"

They quickly rounded up what little belongings they had and returned to the gang.

"Well, Sarge, how do you propose we make our escape?" O'Neil asked, staring at the hundreds of people slamming their fists and slobbering on the windows.

Diesel barked at the people, foam dripping from his mouth. His hair stood on end and he looked back toward the gang, growling at them.

"What's up with your pooch? Is he always this…intimidating looking?" Hodgins asked, swallowing hard.

"Not usually…" Booth said, looking at Diesel carefully. "He's actually quite friendly…"

"Hey O'Neil, why don't you pet Diesel." Manelli said, looking over at the blonde.

O'Neil Squinted his eyes, "Fuck you."

"That is 'Fuck you' Sir, to you!" Manelli said, smiling.

O'Neil smiled back and the looked back at Diesel. "In all seriousness, somethin's got that pooches panties in a knot."

"Yah…that's serious…" Manelli said with a grave face, and then started laughing.

O'Neil did too and Booth shot them a glare.

"Shut up, both of you." He said, "Something's not right-"

Diesel lunged at Booth, knocking him down! Booth instinctively grabbed its mouth and struggled to keep it shut. Manelli grabbed the dog's body and flung him off, only being able to do so from the adrenaline.

Booth quickly stood up and Bones raised the rifle she had taken from the weapons shop and fired at the advancing beast. She missed three times, and Booth tackled her out of the rampaging canines path.

"C'mere Cujo!" Manelli taunted, slamming the chair they had used earlier to lock the doors, on the ground repeatedly to get its attention. "Come and get some fine Italian meat, poochy."

"Manelli what are you doing!" O'Neil shouted, "I have you're gun!" He held up the medic's gun in his hand.

Manelli quickly looked at his empty holster and a panicked look quickly crossed his face. The crazed dog ran toward Manelli, as he jumped up on the chair.

"Shoot it! Hurry, shoot it!" He shouted, watching the satanic dog come nearer and nearer. O'Neil shot at it five times, and all five shots hit the dog, but it continued to run toward Manelli and it barreled into the chair, knocking the helpless Italian into the air and onto his back. He tried to scramble up, but Diesel grabbed his pant leg and roughly dragged him back down. He grabbed the potted plant that Hodgins had threatened Aubrey with and smashed it in Diesel's face, but he didn't loosen his grip.

"Shoot it in the head!" Booth shouted, but all the shots were to risky. They could hit their medic instead and have to suffer his wrath of whining and complaining the whole way and expressing vividly how much he hated them all-so- he ran over to Diesel, along with O'Neil and Hodgins and they grabbed the dog by it's body and tried to pry it off of Manelli-but it didn't budge.

"Why am I always…the one…who gets mauled by satanic animals!" Manelli yelled, kicking the dog repeatedly in the face.

Booth locked his arm firmly around the dog's throat and yanked it back, as hard as he could, causing O'Neil and Jack to fall over.

Bones took out Booth's knife once again and sliced the strap to Booth's rifle from his back, and quickly took the rifle out of its case. She took the butt of the rifle and slammed it in the dog's face and it whimpered.

"Whoa, Bones-what are you doing!?" Booth shouted, wastching in terror as Bones manhandled his sniper rifle. Booth held Deisel still, as Bones brought the butt of the rifle down again. It impacted the dog's head, but slipped off crashing into Booth's jaw.

"Auugh! Son –of-a-…"Booth shouted, feeling blood seep into his mouth.

Bones frowned, "It wasn't my fault- I had no control over the-"

"Just keep hitting it!" He shouted, but regretted from his aching jaw.

She smashed the rifle butt down on the dog's head again, three more times and then the dog slumped over and Booth fell back.

"Booth! Are you okay! The trajectory of the rifle was imbalanced by the dog's skull-it's not a flat plane so it slipped and-"

"Yah, I khinda know that now, Bonesh..." He muttered, standing up.

"Oh don't worry…I'm fine, guys, thanks… I was only mauled by a dog…It's okay though…I'm sure Booth needs more help…"Manelli shouted sarcastically a few feet away. He stood and made sure the dog hadn't bit him. Once he was satisfied with his examination he walked over to the rest of gang, and to tend to Booth's needs and then make fun of him.

"Move it people, medic comin' through." He said, digging a cigar out of his pocket, and popping it into his mouth. "What sheems to be the problem, Shergeant?"

There was already a large bruise forming on Booth's lower jaw on the right side, and he turned his head to spit some blood out of his mouth.

"It was an accident…"Bones muttered to Manelli, but Manelli raised his hand and stopped her. "Shay no more, little lady, I'm shure this man desherved it…"

"Shut up and give me some ibuprofen or something…" He muttered, wincing as he moved his jaw.

Manelli tossed him a bottle of children's Motrin; orange flavored, and winked, "All I got left, bossh."

Booth read the bottle and then looked up at him, "You're serious?"

Manelli nodded, "Yah, I an out when I met up with thish happy bunch."

Booth hung his head and looked over at Bones. He snatched his weapon from her hands and set it on the ground. "How…"He winced. "How many weapons do we have that have enough ammo?"

"I'm all out…"O'Neil said, and then looked at Manelli's pistol in his hand. "Technically, Doc's out…and all of our semi-automatics are out too…"

"So…that just leaves my rifle, and your pistol, right Bones?"

Bones nodded, "Yes."

"Should probably give it to O'Neil…"

Bones looked at him with a dejected look, "Why? I'm a good shot!"

"And O'Neil's a great shot. We don't have any more clips left for that and I only have ten rounds in my pocket."

Bones reluctantly gave it to O'Neil and she walked over to Booth. "This is payback for hitting you with that rife, isn't it?"

"What? No! I just want to make sure that when that pistol goes off it hits it's target!"

"So now you're calling me a bad shot?"

"No, I'm not pegging you for a bad shot! You're just making excuses to carry a gun-which you don't need to be, because you almost killed me in the jungle!" He said, crossing his arms, and ignoring the throbbing pain in his jaw.

"Now you're pegging people because their fire arm skill is below yours! I had no conrol over the bullet ricocheting-"

Booth interrupted, "But you were the one firing it! That's why you cannot have a gun!"

Bones exhaled defiantly and they all stared at each other. They still had one problem. How to get out…How indeed.

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Here we are! I must stop! I need to start packing so, hopefully you've all enjoyed it!

HawkAngel: Thank you! I certainly hope this is good work!^^

SimOph52: I would definitely stow you away in my luggage…if only the luggage compartments in the belly of the plane was pressurized! I have posted another chapy so I hope ur satisfied! I'll also see if I can dig up my old stry with Manelli in it-but I think I might have deleted. He was in the stry originally a world war II medic, with spunk and negativity-but I don't think I ever really finished it. It was just a fictional WWII thing I was doing..i'm a major history freak so..anyway, I'll see if I can find it!

.135: I am so happy you love these stories..my next syry I've already decided will be in Africa! There will be angry hippo's, hungry cheetah's, skulking alligators and so much more! I think it will certainly be a humorous one…but I'm going to make them the only major characters in my stry.

Thank you all for the reviews and tell me what you think! ^^ Review, review! I want to read reviews!


	8. Alright, that's just gross!

Sorry it took so long-I am finally back and bearing this chapter for all! I had lots of bad luck on the trip from missing a day in London because I was stuck in an airport all day-to losing luggage-to people puking on the bus from hangovers-to one of my best friends getting lost in Pompeii and almost missing the ferry to Greece…but, I had many good times as well, and the whole trip was extremely fantastic and breathtaking! But, anyway….here it is! Enjoy, my darlings!

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Cpl. Wade Manelli tossed his CO an ice pack to apply to his jaw, where the psycho-analytical-forensic-lady jammed a rifle butt too, half an hour ago. His jaw had started to sprout bright colors already, and Booth winced when he pressed the cold pack to his face.

"There, it doesn't look too terrible…" Bones said, peeling the ice pack away from his jaw and examining the contusion feeling guilty. But only a little. He shouldn't have had his face in the way anyway…

He winced again and she touched his face, lightly brushing against his jaw, and then replaced the ice pack to his face. She smiled an apology at him.

Booth looked up at the beautiful woman standing beside him and smiled, regretting the action immediately. He groaned and stood, keeping the pack firmly to his face.

Hodgins, O'Neil, and Angela stood watching the interaction between the two. They were obviously meant for each other. They completed each other. Booth had wit and strength, while Dr. Brennan had intelligence, and a surprisingly rational mind. They fit like two peas in a pod, the frosting on the cake, the peanut butter in the Reeses cup. Without one, there was no other. I mean…a Reeses is nothing without his peanut butter.

"Hey, where'sh Tory?" Booth asked, looking around the lab for the missing little girl.

"Now that you mention it…" O'Neil said, sifting through his pockets and finding a mini-flashlight, " I haven't seen her either." He pointed the flashlight across the lab and looked over at Manelli.

Manelli walked in a circle and placed his hands on his hips, "Maybe by the grace of God, she disappeared into oblivion-never to cry again…" He muttered, feeling a bit relieved. Manelli was many things- but he definitely was not fond of snot-nosed prats.

Angela glared and swatted the medic's shoulder, "That's terrible! Go look on the platform-we'll fan out and see if we can find her." She ordered, walking along the sides where Hodgins workstation was.

She looked around the desolate-looking lab. She took in a breath and continued to search through the facility. It looked so different from what she was used to. It used to be a lively building- besides the decaying remains, of course.

Manelli grumbled a bit, but did as he was told. He made his way up the stairs, and tripped over a few stray computer cords. He caught himself on the rail and an alarm rang out.

Hodgins rolled his eyes and swiped his card through the security machine and the alarm immediately stopped-and Manelli continued his way up to the platform.

The rest of the gang continued to spread out to find her, and Booth and Bones looked around the entrance. Booth stared at the pathetic, mind-less, masses of flesh pounding on the windows. He walked closer to a window and slapped his hand on the cool glass. The infected all swarmed over to where his hand was, while they drooled and smeared their faces against the glass.

"All right, that's just gross…" Angela said, walking up to him and gently pushing his hand away.

"Booth…" Bones said, staring at the infected, curiously.

Booth turned around, "What?"

"How do they know where your hand was? These are soundproof walls…" She asked, placing her hand on the glass. She watched again as they swarmed toward her hand, and she looked back at Booth. "Didn't they only rely on their hearing? I thought blindness was a symptom…"

"This is a bad thing, right?" He asked, his shoulders slumping.

"I'm going to-as you say-go out on a limb-and conclude that they do not rely on just their hearing anymore…"Bones said, looking up at him. This was not good.

"Hey! We gotta go, guys!" Manelli yelled. "I think the glass is starting to crack!"

Booth and Bones snapped their heads to where Manelli pointed, and watched in horror as the glass was, indeed, cracking underneath the pressure of the thousands of drumming hands. They quickly hurried up the steps to the platform and the others joined.

"We have to find that little girl!" Angela said, franticly looking in every direction.

"No need too…" Hodgins said, pointing to a demonic looking little zombie. Blood seeped from her mouth and she stared up at them with blank eyes. Her shaking form was standing at the bottom of the stairs- staring at them with intent to eat.

"Okay…we gotta boogey, Bones!" Booth said, dropping his ice pack after the swelling had gone down, and grabbed his sniper rifle from his shoulder and raised it.

The windows shattered and the infected poured inside the lab- toppling over each other in the process. O'Neil looked around and noticed a door upstairs that, hopefully, led to the rooftop. He swatted at Booth and pointed toward it. "Look! A door! I think it leads to the rooftop!"

The gang bolted toward the stairs, successfully dodging the zombies in the process…mostly. Manelli was in the back, having to punch a few infected to get through. They ran upstairs faster than Hodgins had ever thought possible, and was gasping for air by the time they got upstairs.

"I…I really need to get…into shape…" He muttered, bending over and trying to regain his composure.

"Here!" O'Neil said, trying to shove the door open, but it wouldn't budge. Booth and Hodgins tried to help O'Neil bust the door down but it wouldn't open.

Manelli looked down at the staircase and his eyes widened, "Uh…I think we need to hurry it here, guys!" He shouted. Doc rushed over and grabbed some files off of a desk and through it down the stairs, hitting some zombies in the face- causing them to fall down. He saw a computer laying down, broken on the floor and quickly snatched it up and tossed at the advancing infected.

"Come on!" Wade Manelli shouted, "I can't hold them off all day!"

"Hold on!" O'Neil shouted, and stopped Booth and Hodgins. He stepped back a few paces and ran, full force, and shouldered the door, bursting it open!

O'Neil was immediately clobbered by hundreds of zombies. They flooded on top of him like a bunch of starving vultures and commenced to rip his flesh. O'Neil screamed as he tried to push them off of him-but there were too many of them.

"O'Neil!" Booth shouted, running toward the hungry mob, but Bones stopped him, and pushed him away.

"Booth-no!" Bones shouted, holding him back, "We have to save the ammo! We can't! Come on!" She pleaded, yanking his arm.

Booth clenched his jaw and raised his rifle, firing one shot to end his friend's screams.

"Come on!" Bones shouted, pushing him and caught up with the others. On a strange whim, Booth looked up and noticed the glass ceiling of the facility and an idea struck him immediately.

"Hold up!" He said, looking around.

"What are you doing!" Angela shrieked, and looked at Booth.

He ignored her and yanked Manelli's collar to get into his bag. While Manelli hacked and coughed, Booth dug into his pack and grabbed some rope and a metal grapple. He unwrapped it quickly and tied it to the grapple and he jumped onto a desk, swinging the rope above his head and launched it through the glass. The grapple caught onto a metal rung and he pulled it tightly, making sure that it would hold weight.

He hopped down and raised his rifle, firing shots at some infected surrounding them.

"Go on! I'll hold them off!" He ordered.

"I'll help you! I've got my pistol!" Doc shouted, pulling out his pistol.

Hodgins had already pulled himself up, when Angela was hauling herself up.

"Hurry up!" Hodgins shouted, grabbing Ange's arm and helping her up on the roof. Once she was up on top safely, she motioned for Brennan to come up.

Bones began climbing the rope until she felt a hand on her ankle, roughly trying to yank her down. She looked down and tried to shake it off, but was unable to.

"Booth!"

Booth turned and Manelli pulled the trigger on his pistol, but nothing happened!

"Shit! I forgot! I'm out!" He cursed, chunking the empty weapon at the zombie clutching her ankle.

It's neck made a disgusting crunch and it stumbled, losing its grip on Dr. Brennan's ankle.

"Get up, Manelli!" Booth said, pushing him toward the desk. Doc waited for Brennan to get up and then hopped up on the desk, and grabbed the rope. Booth slowly walked backwards toward the desk while continuously popping off rounds.

Manelli climbed up the rope and heaved himself up onto the roof and took Bones' outstretched hand, graciously. He turned around and yelled or Booth to get his ass up there.

Booth slipped the rifle strap around his shoulder and kicked the desk over. He looked up quickly and jumped, grabbing the rope. The adrenaline surged through his body and in no time flew up the rope. Once on top of the roof, he grabbed the rope and coiled it up, stuffing it back into Manelli's pack.

"How about we get the hell out of here." Booth said, looking at the tired group. Time was running out and they needed to trek 13 miles until they reached the city.

"13 miles man? Were not going to make it.." Hodgins said, stretching his arms. The last time he had to heave up his own wait was when he played on the monkey bars…and that was a long time ago.

"Well…why not fly instead of walk?" Manelli said, pointing to a building next to them, with a beautiful, shiny new helicopter.

Bones, Angela, Hodgins, and Booth looked at him and then at the chopper. How tempting indeed.

Manelli and Booth decided to have a little meeting. They walked away from the others and began talking to each other, quietly, so the others wouldn't feel a need to eavesdrop- though, Bones decided to anyway.

"It's about a 6 feet jump to the next building, so we hopefully won't have to worry about that- but I'm a little rusty with aircrafts, Sarge." Manelli said, looking up at the weary sergeant.

"Don't worry about it…I mean, how hard can it be, right?" Booth asked, shrugging. He looked at his watch and then whistled, "damn, we really better get moving." He muttered. He looked over at the others, and then at Bones who he noticed was right behind him. He turned around and gave her a weird look.

"What are you doing?" He asked, stepping away from her. She was standing in his personal bubble and didn't like the intrusion.

"What? I wasn't doing anything!" Bones said, shrugging. She feigned innocence- but Booth knew better.

"Then why are you in my bubble space?" He asked, getting a bit annoyed.

"Why would you be blowing bubbles at a time like this, I hardly think that's appropriate in our situation." She said, leaning on one leg, and placing her hands on her hip.

For a moment, he thought that looked hot- her annoyed expression, with a pinch of confusion. Then he quickly shook off those thoughts and reminded himself that this seriously was not the time to be checking the hot doctor out.

"It's an expression, Bones. But-who cares!" He said, raising his arms up before she could interrupt. He gestured the rest to join them and he announced there thought-out plan.

"Alright, so…we have about an hour before the shit hits the fan, so here's what were going to do! Were going to hop over to the next building and hopefully-if theirs no fatalities-then we can move on to hijacking that helicopter there, and flying our asses out. Now, I want to do this in a timely fashion-so in case, the chopper is out of fuel, I want to have enough time, to think that we have enough time, to get out. 'Kay?" Booth finished, clapping his hands.

"What if there is no fuel, and we don't have enough time?" Hodgins asked, though, it was kind of a pointless question.

"Well, we'll get to that, when we get to it, bug boy-so…" Booth walked back to where they had crawled up to the roof and turned, facing the building he was just about to jump and face-plant in.

Everyone followed him and took their places on either side of him. He exhaled and got ready to sprint, he looked over at Manelli who was the last in line and gave him a thumbs-up. Hodgins looked at him and nodded. He looked over at Ange and she smiled.

"Good to go!" She said, confidently-though in her mind she was panicking and crying, and running hysterically.

Booth looked over at his Bones and she looked at him and nodded. He mentally prepared himself for the jump and began the count-down.

"1…2…2and a half!…" He shouted and Hodgins started to go-but caught himself and threw a dirty look at him. Booth just smiled it off and shouted three. All five of them sprinted across the roof and jumped….

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sorry guys! I know this one took me a while!…the stry is just about over, so readers, bare with me…I know this stry hasn't been the greatest-but I'm trying to at least finish it and keep what little dignity I have left-so…review and tell me what you think! Thankys for being so patient!

Incretsible: Thank you so much for the wonderful review and unfortunately, I didn't have much internet access while over there. I absolutely loved it and can't get enough of France, Switzerland and Italy. I'd love to go to the Netherlands some day too!

CrossMyHeartHope2Spy: Thank you for the brilliant reviews! I know Manelli is the one who always gets mauled by animals-that's his trademark now…and I've been thinking-a lot of people like the quick witted wise-ass so I thought, in my upcoming new stry-he should have a surprise starring! I think that would be fun…

And for the rest of you who have just read and not left anything-Thank Us!

Also…quick survey…I know I can do a survey thing on fanfic-but thought this would be easier and I'll tell you all the results in me next chapy-

Who is by far the best character in the Harry potter series!? I want to know from all of you HP nerds (like me) who ur favy is…

Mine is Snape, of course! Who else could possibly be better than the doom-and gloom professor-who's also a spy and has a billowy cape of doom?! MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Anyway, tell me! I'm just curious!


	9. the end! yay!

Feeling the wind get knocked out of him, Sgt. Seeley Booth landed on the roof, quickly rolling away before his crazy scientist landed on top of him. He sat back and felt the sting of the gravel embedded in his palms and brushed them off on his pants.

Booth looked over at Bones, who had just done a face-plant, and her nose was bleeding. He scooted over to her and looked at her face, wiping the blood from her face with his handkerchief.

"Ya okay there, Bones?" He asked, standing up and hearing his knees pop. He stretched out a hand for her to grab, and she gladly took it.

"Yes…it seems I had miscalculated-"

She felt something hard hit her back and she yelped and crashed into Booth, both of them sprawled on top of each other, their faces mere inches away.

"Sorry…" She whispered, staring into his eyes, not really wanting to leave this comfortable spot.

"Ahhh, sorry, Sarge!" Manelli said, as he crawled off of Dr. Brennan and shook his head. He stood and stumbled a bit over Brennan's legs but caught himself. Manelli looked over at the two and sighed impatiently.

"I know you and the doctor have a thing for each other, so after this whole situation is behind us, take a vacation! To the Bahamas! There'll be no interruptions there-"

Booth interrupted Manelli's taunt by kicking him in the leg, and then Booth and Bones stood, looking around them.

"Alright, now that we're all…not here…" Booth looked around, and wondered where the rest of the squints went.

Bones heard a quiet 'help' come from over the edge of the building and they all rushed over to the side. Angela had a death grip on the edge and she struggled to keep it, while Hodgins, her estranged lover, was holding onto her thigh for dear life.

Booth grabbed Angela's wrist and Bones stretched out her hand to grasp Angela's flailing arm. Angela looked up at both of them and sighed in relief as she saw her best friend and the hunky army guy help her.

The two pulled her up and Angela and Hodgins rolled onto the roof, gasping for air as if they were flopping fish. Angela sat up and stood quickly, helping Hodgy up and looked at Manelli.

"We only have 45 minutes left." She said, and sprinted off toward the motionless huey.

The rest followed and hopped up on the platform. Booth opened the door for the ladies and they all jumped in without question. Hodgins stepped up to it and then stopped. Booth looked at him curiously.

"What are you waiting for? An invitation?" He asked crudely.

"Well, I thought I could sit up front-"

Hodgins was cut short as he was pushed into the chopper and slammed the door shut, locking it.

Manelli opened the front passenger door and slid inside, shutting the door behind him after Booth slid into the pilot's seat and shut his.

Booth strapped on his seat belt-as did the rest- and fiddled his fingers over the billions of buttons and gadgets. He scratched his head and pushed a large red button the said _propeller_ on it and was satisfied when the propellers started to rotate. He and Manelli slapped on their earmuffs and Booth carefully chose his next button.

"You sure you know what you're doing there, Sarge?" Manelli asked in the radio that resided in his earmuffs.

"Not a clue." Booth said with a large smile.

Manelli held onto his seat and closed his eyes, as he knew this was his certain doom.

Booth scanned the dash and turned on some switches and the helicopter roared to life. He smiled and wrapped his fingers onto the cyclic and placed his other hand on the collective and placed his foot on the rudder. In no time flat they were in the air and he steered the beast north. Soon, they would be out of the city, and somewhere safe.

Bones sat back on the seat and sighed in relief. They were almost there. She looked out the window and saw a desolate looking D.C.. Her home for nearly three years had just been turned into a desolate wasteland in the span of one night. She turned her attention to the snazzy pilot. After this was over, would she be able to spend time with him. Her stomach started to twist in a knot and her heart began to ache just thinking about that.

Of course, she stopped her thinking right there.

_This isn't rational. It's not like he's going to stay. It's foolish to think otherwise._

Or was it? She enjoyed being around Booth, but, also hated it. He always made her think irrationally, and that was not healthy-actually, being around him was not healthy. The last time she was with them, they were in a jungle trying to survive from man-eating insects and giant snakes, and now they were on the run from flesh-eating drones, and trying to fly away from an imminent demise.

But, when she was with him, her life was so crazy, so irregular, she dared say, she liked it. Her life was never that exciting until she met him.

Shaking those weary feelings away from her mind, she looked over at her best friend. She actually fell asleep against Hodgins shoulder. She seemed wiped out. Seeing this, she noticed she too was falling victim of fatigue and decided to get a little rest while she could.

Night had fallen very quickly and Manelli pointed outside the cockpit.

"Watch it! Watch it!" He shouted into the radio.

Booth cursed and he flew over the power lines he would have crashed into. Manelli glared at him.

"There's a reason that there are those monumentally-huge balls on the power lines, Sarge."

Booth just gave him a dirty look and looked back out at the sky. His attention had wondered to a certain person in the back. He started to think that this little adventure was over…so…I guess he wouldn't be seeing her much anymore…and that was about the time he almost hit the power lines.

Focusing a bit harder, he chugged his way through the air and looked at his watch. They had about 15 minutes left until the poopy hit the paddle, so they were making good time.

Once they flew out of Washington, the nuke destroyed the infected city and Booth and Bones were hitched, Manelli, Hodgins, and Angela had a love triangle and all was swell in the world.

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A/N: My good people, I'm sorry, but I'm truly tired of this stupid stry and have officially ended it. Now, I've got two great ideas that I want a consensus on! The plot between Bones and Booth will be slightly different, but more fluffy. Now- would you rather read Booth and Bones stranded alone in Africa, being chase by mad lions, indigenous warriors, and hungry, hungry hippos? Or have Booth and a team (that will get picked off ) have to go and save a certain scientist from her uncertain doom on a strange top secret island called Isla Sorna? I'm itching to write so a reply tonight will have to be made- if none comes- I've already got one started so- you make the choice! Again, I apologize for the sucky stry and I promise I'll do much better. I'm going to delete this stry from fanfic archives just as soon as the people who actually want to read it-has read it! Tank you all for sticking to it!


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